bank holiday chilli festival

Yesterday Herb and I went to the Benington Lordship chilli festival in a small village about half an hour away. Neither of us knew what to expect, but we certainly hadn't anticipated the level of interest in chilli's! It was a fantastic event.

You could smell the food as we parked the car and even though it was before noon we started planning what we'd have. Of course the food stalls were a big draw but those packed with all things chilli were amazing, plants, sauces, chutneys, aprons, shirts and more. Lots of tasting to be done and some purchases to make. We laughed so much at all the blokes egging each other on to taste the deadliest of sauces. one chap was clearly in some distress after tasting something called Satans S@@t.

I waited for ages for the paella to be done, long after Herb had eaten his harissa chicken with yogurt and flatbread (yum he said). But it refused to cook, poor chap, I gave up in the end.

I finally decided on the goat curry and I'm so pleased I did. It was really wonderful and I'm going to try and recreate it............when I can source the goat meat!

The house and gardens are wonderful and it was the perfect venue........try and go next year if you re in the Stevenage area.

The music was perfect and very mexican..............

....and we finally chose a medium hot chilli plant, some chutney, chilli of course and a southern indian garlic and tomato sauce to take home.

We loved this little chap in the vegetable patch.......he's not real of course...we want one.



On the craft front I am beavering away at the 'university blanket', its not going to be huge, just enough to wrap round her shoulders, when home seems a long way away..........


I bought this beautiful thread from rowan, cotton glace in blue and burnt orange colours and thought I would do some motifs to put on a white pillowcase. Will show you if it works out.
Finally youngest child returned from Greece, looking beautifully tanned and happy. Boy was I relieved to see her back in one piece.....you see a week before she left, a fine young man, a good friend of hers, died tragically on holiday. A terrible accident that makes you want to hold on to them even more tightly, even though at 17 they don't want to be held so so tight.

A level results day.........

Well the sun finally rose on today........literally I was there to see it, i just couldn't sleep properly. I finally heard eldest child get a phone call at 7.15, then a very quiet 10 minutes (she was checking on the UCAS site)before the door was flung open and she shouted at her dad who was of course fast asleep(how can men do that?).........''I'm going to uni''........fantastic fantastic news. We are so very proud of her, she has worked very hard. AAB is not easily achievable although we think she was a little disappointed she didn't get 3 A's. But hey she's off to York to study how the brain works-psychology....how brilliant is that.

Youngest child got her AS results, A B C........so she is very happy too. In fact both are so thrilled, we have hardly seen them because they have gone to town to celebrate on the common with all their pals. The house has been filled with noisy excitable young people and why not. All quiet now though.

Youngest is off to Greece tonight so we are doing a midnight round trip to Gatwick. oh joy. I am more than a little worried about her going away and have prepared a little lecture, you know the kind of things, stick together, don't drink too much, don't burn in the sun, eat properly, stay away from boys etc etc. You can imagine the response I will get

I am now under pressure to crack on with the new blanket for eldest to take to uni. I think it looks really good so far.

Just need to pop to John Lewis to get some more supplies of yarn. Meanwhile have started a little crewel project as I can't bear to have nothing on the go. There is never enough time for all my ideas! Great day.......

results day and a new blanket

a-level results day is looming and we in this little house in the small town are getting a wee bit anxious........not speaking about the day to come but its in all our thoughts. One week tomorrow will decide eldest child's immediate future, university or maybe not. Of course we think she will get the results she needs and following a speedy and expensive trip to ikea will disappear off up north to start her new adventure(and study of course). I have everything crossed but am confident she will get it. She has worked so hard.

Youngest child will later that same day also get her AS results before she flies off to a faraway Greek island to have her first holiday with chums(don't tell me its too soon, i am being the liberal mum on the outside, inside is a different story).

Anyhow hit john Lewis this week for a new project and had all that gorgeous yarn to choose from. Herb was hovering so there wasn't much time but this is what i came away with. I intend it as a little piece of home for eldest child to take to university. all positive thoughts welcome!

Bands of the 80'S

..............at the back of town is a stately home that is tonight having a concert with bands of the 80's. wish I'd got a ticket cos its all my old favourites. ABC singing 'all of my heart'...........Go West, king of wishful thinking, Heaven 17, Belinda Carlyle and Human League............remember that video? Am stood in the rain listening to Martin Fry and being whisked back 25 years.............where has the time gone?



Off to Norfolk for a few days tomorrow.............taking the linen and wool so might get a few bits done.




Have been trying to finish off some stuff today as the weather has been so poor, I was forced to stay in. Not really a hardship as I like nothing better than to settle down with the radio and some stitching. Have run out of wool for the crochet blanket so it must go back in the bag until I can get to John Lewis.I will also need to go to ikea for some frames for the stack of crewel embroidery i have.


Had a little practice of the Japanese stitching from the new book....it will look better in cotton don't you agree.


Have to go Phil Oakley starting up.......... dont you want me baby!!!

a great week.........

But not a lot to show you I’m afraid. i forgot my camera!

Wednesday i met a friend in London and we went to the summer exhibition at the royal academy. I'm afraid i wasn’t as excited as she was at the modern art but a very pleasant couple of hours was spent in this wonderful building. In the main, modern art isn’t my thing, you know what I mean, 2 splashes of acrylic across a canvas doesn’t constitute art to me. the Tracy emin pics were frankly bewildering but the Damien Hirst statue of St Bartholomew was intriguing and quite womderful in all its glorius silveryness!. ( oh how we giggled as the lady describing it to her partially sighted friend suddenly realised what was draped over his arm. 'ohmygodohmygod', check it out if you don't know what i mean. a bit of a whoa moment).





However next on the agenda was Fortnum’s for some delicious treats then on to a dim sum restaurant that had been recommended by a colleague. Ocean city and its excellent food....... great value if you’re in Chinatown.

Then we walked up to Liberty’s before home. I hadn’t been to there in quite some time and I found the haberdashery dept a bit disappointing. its moved now to a bit of a dark corner and I know the fabrics are wonderful but there didn’t seem to be any else that was special, or tempting. It will be a different matter I know if I get into quilting which I would like to try later in the year.

I bought these 2 little children’s colouring books at the royal academy.





Aren’t they sweet?

I thought they would make little stitchery projects at some point.
This lovely lovely book was waiting for me when I got in..all the way from Japan. Funnily enough I saw it at the Japan centre in Piccadilly but it was a lot more than I paid directly from Japan.

On the stitching front I saw these beautiful blue wools in the local shop and had to have a dabble with them. Am rather please with the results but I think I need to get my stitches a bit neater.
We are rather lucky in this little town to have a little secret art gallery that specialises in the work of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious, whose work I absolutely love. Today they had a coffee morning to raise funds for a new study centre so we went along to gaze at these wonderful prints. Some other work was on sale so we bought this little picture by David Weston. Then it was home to watch the next stage of the tour du France. We were in this area on holiday 2 years ago so it was familiar, and having been up mount ventoux in a car we could appreciate what they were doing. Amazing stamina. What hearts and lungs those guys must have!

a rather nice day with an early start and some finishing....

rather a nice day here in the small town.......terrific storm last night, more like the autumn than summer, woke about four am to see the trees outside really moving in the strong wind, with the rain lashing at the windows. i rather like it. went downstairs for a mint tea and started to potter......had about 6 hours to myself just doing that. love it. so I managed to finish the crochet flowers cushion, which I'm very pleased with. A big thanks to http://www.blogger.com/rosehip.typepad.com/rose_hip_blog/ for the pattern.

Then I started another little crewel embroidery just playing with colours. i rather like these blues but not sure what else to put with it. Tended the beautiful orchids.

these are such good value in terms of how long the flowers last and are so so beautiful. (Very cheap in our local market at the minute!)

This afternoon was my idea of bliss. Eldest child, having come back from Ibiza yesterday came in from work and went straight round to see the boyfriend, just as youngest child went to work at our local up market food store. (those with the snappy green uniform.) Herb played golf, so i did minimum domestic chores and settled down with the hoop and a Bette Davis on the TV. i am a huge fan of black and white movies but my favourite is Miss Davis.All that angst and melodrama and dresses to die for.

Finished with a nice dinner with wine. Having friends over tomorrow for lunch, should be a lovely relaxing day with old friends good food, the papers and some nice wine. A perfect weekend me thinks.

lazy sunday.......some crochet and crewel embroidery

well the end of a perfect day............have literally done nothing domestic except cook the chicken dinner and put the washing on the line. the rest of the day I have devoted to the radio,



crochet,

checking favourite blogs, flickering, embroidery,



the papers





and the daughter ( in small measure....only really delivering food and drinks on a regular basis!). in other words, me. which I have to say is happening more and more as the children don't need me as much, husband is fully occupied with whatever the current sport is on TV ( the ashes as you probably know). eldest child is in Ibiza on her first all girl holiday. I have had some texts so i know she is alive. have to shut my mind to all things negative and trust she will come back in one piece brimming with wonderful experiences. which I'm sure will be the case. happy days